Pension Research Council: The Boettner Center: Working Paper Library: 2009 Series

Working Paper Library: 2009 Series

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Financial Literacy among the Young: Evidence and Implications for Consumer Policy
Annamaria Lusardi, Olivia S. Mitchell, and Vilsa Curto
BWP2009-01

We examined financial literacy among the young using data from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. We showed that financial literacy is low among the young; fewer than one-third of young adults possess basic knowledge of interest rates, inflation, and risk diversification. Financial literacy is strongly related to sociodemographic characteristics and family financial sophistication. Specifically, a college-educated male whose parents had stocks and retirement savings is about 50 percentage points more likely to know about risk diversification than a female with less than a high school education whose parents were not wealthy. These findings have implications for consumer policy.

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